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'Brokenhearted': Drowned woman was from Longmont

31-year-old Megan Davis died attempting to save one of her dogs from drowning

By Tony Kindelspire, Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
06/11/2014 06:07:42 PM MDT

Updated:
06/12/2014 07:35:15 AM MDT

Ambulances and Boulder County Sheriff's Office Vehicles are seen where 31-year-old Megan Davis of Longmont was pulled from Highland Ditch after attempting to rescue a dog Tuesday near the 12900 block of North 87th Street. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

Megan Davis, shown with her dogs in her bio on the Pella Corner Animal Clinic website: pellacorner.com (pellacorner.com)

What started out as an afternoon between friends letting their dogs take a dip in the water ended in the tragic death of a 31-year-old woman who had jumped into an irrigation ditch in an attempt to save her dog from drowning.

Megan Davis of Longmont was pronounced dead at Longmont United Hospital Tuesday afternoon. Her friend, 39-year-old Kristen Vannorsdel, is the daughter of the homeowners of the farm where the incident occurred on the 12000 block of N. 87th St., north of Longmont.

The two, who work together at Pella Corner Animal Clinic in Hygiene, had gone to Kristen's parents' property Tuesday to let their dogs swim in the Highland Ditch, which flows through the property.

Norma Symns, who has lived on the 20-acre farm with her husband, Tom, for almost 30 years, said that her now-grown children and their friends had used the ditch as a summertime recreation spot. A rope swing hung from a tree above the ditch Wednesday.

She called Wednesday's accident "a horrible thing to happen."

Symns said anyone using the ditch was always warned to avoid the water around the dam, which is about 40 yards upstream from the spot most used for recreation.

The diversion dam is a concrete structure that goes over the water and has a gate under it that is raised or lowered by ditch riders to control water flow. Downstream from the dam the water flowed at a reasonable pace Wednesday and the water level did not appear to be unusually high for this time of year. But the velocity of the water increases exponentially as you get close to the dam.

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As with any irrigation ditch, the water directly beneath the dam is deeper and that hole creates a strong backcurrent as the water is churned back in on itself.

According to Symns, Davis and Vannorsdel parked their respective cars in the driveway and then walked with their dogs, two each, the quarter-mile or so back to the ditch.

Symns said her daughter told her that one of Davis' dogs jumped in just below the dam and was caught in the undertow. Davis jumped in after the dog and was herself caught in the strong backcurrent.

Symns said that to her knowledge, Davis had never been to the ditch and may have been unfamiliar with how dangerous the water around the dam could be.

"Kristen knew all along that that was a dangerous place to be, but she jumped in to try to save (Davis)," Symns said. "But Kristen got caught in the undercurrent — she said it flipped her around about three times, and she said she thought, 'I'm going to drown with Megan.'"

The current released her daughter enough that she was able to pull herself out of it and get to the side, Symns said. But the two women had left their phones in their cars in the driveway, a quarter-mile away.

Symns said she was just pulling into the driveway with a friend when her daughter came running from the field.

"I could tell by the look on her face that something horrible had happened," Norma Symns said. "She said, 'Mom, call 911, Megan's in the ditch!'"

Kristin ran back to the ditch and was able to pull her friend out of the water. She and others began performing CPR prior to the emergency responders' arrival. According to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, an ambulance crew was unable to revive Davis and she was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Asked earlier in the day how her daughter was doing, Symns, who herself broke into tears more than once during conversation, replied, "Not good. She's brokenhearted. Megan was a co-worker and a friend of hers."

Before they joined Dr. Mike Cousins at Pella Corner Animal Clinic, Vannorsdel and Davis had previously worked together at Longs Peak Animal Hospital. A voicemail left on the answering machine at the four-person Pella Corner clinic announced that it would be closed the rest of the week due to an "unfortunate family tragedy."

According to a short bio on the clinic's website, Davis leaves behind a husband and a son. It notes her love of animals and especially her pets: her two labradors, Kody and Dozer, and her cats Sprout and Raja. It noted that she also enjoyed hiking, biking, camping, snowboarding and snowshoeing.

A handwritten sign on the front door of the Davis' family home in Longmont Wednesday asked that the press stay away out of respect for the family's privacy.

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